Useful Utility: SysInternals Process Explorer

A trusted friend of most experienced Windows folks, Process Explorer is one of Sysinterals’ bag of free utilities that provide welcome relief from some of Windows’ quirks and inadequacies.

I have found Process Explorer extremely useful and a great substitute for Windows Task Manager. On the topic of Task Manager, have you seen it change a lot since NT 4.0 days? There have been some improvements, but it’s time Microsoft replaced it with something more extensive and powerful.

Process Explorer provides a lot of info about processes. In particular, it shows you all services running in the svchost processes. It also shows all files open/locked by a particular process. Ever tried to delete/replace a file and kept getting “file in use” errors with no clue as to which process was holding the particular file hostage? You can use PE to detect the process and kill it.

Besides, it can show DLLs being used, and has search capability to search for a file handle or dll.